Mediocre Gear Solid

[VR_Jay]

Someone explain to me, please, why these games are popular. I just picked up MGS4, convinced by my peers that THIS would be the game of the year to own, that set the new bar for video games everywhere, that finally validated the PS3's existence and actually get me to turn on my machine after three months of dormancy. Well, they were right, I did turn on my PS3.

Let me come right out and say it: This is not a good game. It's a more than decent movie, but as a game, it fails. It has plenty of interesting concepts, but nothing ever meshes together for the cohesive experience it should be. It certainly doesn't warrant to 9 and 10 score reviews it has been garnering. At stealth action, it fails. I have said this and will continue to say this, but Splinter Cell has MGS beaten on every front as far as the stealth genre is concerned. Not only does it deliver a more genuine and unique experience, but it presents it with such flare and intrigue that I can't help but be sucked into Sam Fisher's world. Metal Gear Solid, on the other hand, is camp. It's cheesy, it silly, and every time I begin to be drawn into its world and characters it does something, almost desperately it seems, to throw me out of it again. MGS is a spoof that doesn't yet realize it's tongue has been placed firmly within in its cheek. It parades about, certain of its own legitimacy as a serious game. Its like watching a retarded kid make the football team because his coach feels bad for him. The state of this series is really quite sad.

As far as actual gameplay is concerned, MGS is a joke. Unrealistic tactical movements coupled with a lame stealth system make for quite the disappointment. The cover system is useless and Snakes idea of stealth us laughably lame. And just what the hell is the Snake Crawl supposed to be, other than yet another exercise in the homoerotic undercurrents that this series seems to live for? I might have put up with these mechanics five years ago, but today this is unacceptable. The guards are a dumb as ever and could even be completely ignorable were it not for the stupidest execution of what could have been the coolest gadget to date in a stealth game: The octo suite.

In theory, this suite is the ultimate camouflage, allowing you to perfectly blend in with your background. However, the illusion is ruined almost immediately by the fact that Snake's white mustachioed face is fully exposed. The fact that he can stand next to a flower print wall in broad daylight and suddenly guards can walk past without seeing him is face-palm laughable. Add in his trusty box, in which he can scamper undetected across battlefields currently engaged in massive firefights, and this game suddenly becomes comedy gold. But I haven't even gotten to the worse part: The cutscenes.

In what might be considered a good, well paced story-driven game, the plot and the action coincide in perfect balance with one another, neither overpowering the other. In Metal Gear, the the action is broken up (many times abruptly) by long-winded, drawn out cut scenes that revel in there own production values. What could have taken two minutes to say in cutscene and then perhaps even continued or wrapped up during the actual gameplay is stretched out into 25 minutes of meandering dialogue and long awkward pauses. And just when I think the lame overacting is over and I can get back to playing the game, Otacon calls me and blabs on for another ten minutes about the very things that just happened in the previous scenes, thus essentially repeating the same shit I stopped caring about out of boredom five minutes ago . And it seems like they happen every 15 minutes! This isn't just lazy story-telling, its down right bad. As an experiment, I repeated the first two levels which I had completed in about 6 hours the other day, but this time skipped every cut scene. It knocked my play time to a little under three hours. That means for every hour of actual, subpar gameplay, I have to sit through an hour of cut scene.

I want my money back.
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[color=black]"Your toast is burnt and no amount of scraping will remove the black stuff!" ~ Caboose, Red vs. Blue[/color]

[Stratadrake]

Long time no see/hear, Jay.

Myself I still have no reason to shell out four-plus Bens for the system, much less three Andies per title, [i]even considering[/i] the sole title on PS3 that catches my interest in the slightest (Ratchet & Clank Future).

So as far as my MGS knowledge goes, I can only say that the cardboard box is exactly what it has always been: one of the series's staple in-jokes. Obviously MGS4 is not for newcomers to the series, but in some cases series fans can also turn out to be the worst critics.

[quote=Wikipedia]...[i]Edge[/i] and [i]Eurogamer[/i] alike concluded that although the game represents an apotheosis of the series style, it ultimately fails to revitalise it, and will not win over new fans. [i]IGN[/i] UK were concerned that the game's hype and widespread praise may lead to disappointment, but feel that objectively, the game is a "masterpiece".[/quote]
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[HerculesRockefeller]

OH HAY GUYS LETS GET DRUNK AND PLAY HALO SO WE DONT HAVE TO THINK OR PAY CLOSE ATTENTION YEAH IT'LL BE AWESOEM

FPS GAMES 4 LIFE
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[VR_Jay]

[quote="HerculesRockefeller"]OH HAY GUYS LETS GET DRUNK AND PLAY HALO SO WE DONT HAVE TO THINK OR PAY CLOSE ATTENTION YEAH IT'LL BE AWESOEM

FPS GAMES 4 LIFE[/quote]

Please, if MGS is an intellectual game than Paris Hilton is a productive member of society.
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[color=black]"Your toast is burnt and no amount of scraping will remove the black stuff!" ~ Caboose, Red vs. Blue[/color]

[HerculesRockefeller]

I never made such a claim. I was implying that without playing the previous games in the series, then you won't know what the fu[color=orange][/color]ck is going on, and it will seem like it's trying to be intellectual. If you haven't played any of the prvious games, which you clearly haven't, then the game [i]will[/i] seem dull, boring, contrived. Granted the gameplay is [b]not[/b] that great, but the storyline more than makes up for that. If you have not played the first three games however, the story won't seem like it. It is not a casual pick up and play game like Call of Duty or Guitar Hero, the game was made entirely for those who have been playing the series since 1998 or so. It's easy to see how you could dislike it without having played the previus games, but it doesn't change the fact that your post just went out of the way to point out why [i]you[/i] didn't like it, while completely missing out on the main point of the game, which is the 9 hours of story that perfectly wrapped up on the greatest story based series in modern history.
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[VR_Jay]

I played Metal Gear Solid waaaaay back in the day. I liked it, but then again stealth action gameplay was in its infancy so there wasn't much to compare it too. I got about half way through MGS2 before being distracted by something shiny in he corner of my room and never got back to it. I tried out MGS3 at a friends house but after that I sort of lost interest in Solid Snake all together though I did do my research for MGS4 to catch myself up on the story. I guess I was just expecting something more from a game designed for the MOST POWERFUL SYSTEM in all EVER LOVING HEAVEN. Yes, it looked very pretty, but it still played like a PS1 game.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I did not pay $60 for in interactive movie. The word "game" suggests to me that I am about to partake in an experience where I, if not having a direct impact on the story, at least [b]play[/b] the majority of it out. In the world of Metal Gear you are little more than a passive observer, occasionally hitting a button sequence or two to advance the plot further. I do not condone walking down a hallway after watching a 10 minute cutscene in order to enter a room that activates yet another cut scene as viable gameplay. That, in itself, is shameful and I suggest Mr. Kojima-san commit hari kari immediately in order to save face.

Really, its your only option, Hideo.
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[color=black]"Your toast is burnt and no amount of scraping will remove the black stuff!" ~ Caboose, Red vs. Blue[/color]

[HerculesRockefeller]

I payed $60 for an interactive movie to wrap up what has been one of my favorite series' since I ad just gotten into gaming, I fully [i]expected[/i] nine hours of cutscenes, and cared very little about the gameplay, so you can see my bias.
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[Stratadrake]

[quote]Yes, it looked very pretty, but it still played like a PS1 game.[/quote]
...and that's why Nintendo developed the Wii.
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[HerculesRockefeller]

To bad it has one worthwhile game so far, eh strata?
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[VR_Jay]

3, to be more precise
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[color=black]"Your toast is burnt and no amount of scraping will remove the black stuff!" ~ Caboose, Red vs. Blue[/color]